Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:

"I expect to see more books and articles that explore the borders of colonial life, the places where different peoples come together, however those borders are defined -- by geography, economics, politics, race, gender, ethnicity or status."

--Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History, commenting on the future of history as an academic field, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28.

"It is exceedingly, devilishly difficult for professionals to tell fact from fiction when a child has been repeatedly suggestively interviewed over a long period of time. They look and act the way children do when they are trying to be accurate and honest."

--Stephen Ceci, the H.L. Carr Professor of Human Development and author of Jeopardy in the Courtroom, a book on how easy it is to influence the testimony of young children involved in custody disputes or abuse cases, commenting on recovered memories and children's testimony, in The New York Times, April 25.

"Clearly, children arrange themselves in power hierarchies from the very first moment they begin interacting. Leadership isn't genetic, but certainly personality traits are. There are children who are very shy and awkward and retreat from a group. Other children are very assertive and direct others: 'You go over to that side, I'm going to throw the ball up, and you catch it.' "

--Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of human development, discussing leadership and follower qualities in children, ages 5 to 7, in Family Life Magazine, April issue.

"This is a beautiful justification of Heisenberg when he said he never worked on a bomb. He never did."

--Hans Bethe, the J.W. Anderson Professor Emeritus of physics, saying that subsequent tape recordings of German scientist Werner Heisenberg proved he never intended to build an atomic bomb for Hitler, in The New York Times, March 28.

"If the Nasdaq's upward spiral resumes, still more investors will feel compelled to jump on board. In such an environment, the only thing certain is that a spectacular downturn lies out there somewhere."

--Robert H. Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics in the Johnson Graduate School of Management, commenting on the Nasdaq stock index in an op-ed in The New York Times, March 17.

"You're going to see Darwinism played out here over the next couple of years. It's big, it's messy and there's a lot of pain."

-- Chekitan Dev, associate professor of marketing in the School of Hotel Administration, commenting on the growing hotel-supply industry on the Internet, in The Wall Street Journal, May 2.